CMU Daily 14.03.18: Miley Cyrus sued for $300 million, UK Music urges Chancellor to hurry up with business rates review

Miley Cyrus sued for $300 million over We Can't Stop lyric
Miley Cyrus is being sued for copyright infringement over a line in her 2013 single 'We Can't Stop'. Although no figure for damages is listed in the lawsuit, lawyers representing her accuser, Jamaican dancehall artist Flourgon, describe it as a $300 million case.

The dispute centres on a single line from 'We Run Things', a 1998 hit for Flourgon, real name Michael May. "We run things, things no run we", he reckons, was lifted and turned into "We run things, things don't run we" for 'We Can't Stop'.

As well as Cyrus, May is suing her label RCA and its parent company Sony Music, the song's co-writers Rock City (Timothy Thomas and Theron Thomas) and Mike Will Made It, and Cyrus's manager Larry Rudolph.

The lawsuit notes the popularity of 'We Run Things' within reggae and dancehall circles, both upon its release and to this day in various countries around the world. As such, it has influenced Caribbean culture significantly, says the lawsuit.

In fact, it adds, in an interview about their work on the Miley Cyrus track, Rock City spoke about how they had drawn upon that culture for the song, referencing the line "we run things, things no run we" as a simple part of that culture, rather than acknowledging that it came from a specific source.

This is important in establishing the argument that this is about more than simply nabbing a single line from a 30 year old song. The lawsuit notes that 'We Can't Stop' was the song used to re-launch Cyrus as an "edgy" pop act, switching drastically from the clean cut Disney star she had been marketed as previously.

Cyrus borrowed heavily from Caribbean culture for her new image, says the lawsuit, with the lifted line a key part of that. In fact, it notes, the line is developed elsewhere in the song, showing its significance to the composition and her new image as a whole.

The lawsuit goes on to note just how successful this relaunch was, providing for Cyrus the kind of glowing biography artists would normally include for themselves.

The song is five times platinum in the US alone, its video broke numerous viewing records on Vevo and YouTube, and Cyrus performs it during almost every live show to rapturous responses from audiences. The song, and May's lyric within it - reckon the lawyers - made Cyrus very famous and very wealthy.

It also notes that, while May was never contacted and asked to license his words, Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick are listed as co-writers on 'We Can't Stop'. This is due to a sample of their track 'La Di Da Di', which was properly licensed ahead of the song's release.

May owns "around 50%" of the 'We Run Things' copyright, says the lawsuit, but also, in 2017, he sought and was granted protection for "all musical arrangements" within the work from the US Copyright Office. This includes his "unique, original and creative lyrical phrase".

The lawyers then list a number of similar cases they believe set precedents of sorts that support May's claim. This includes a 2004 dispute in which "Beyonce's ladies-group Destiny's Child" were sued by songwriter Ricky Allen, who believed elements of a song he wrote had been used for one of their tracks, 'Cater 2 U'. That case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum the following year.

Although 'We Can't Stop' was indeed a very successful single for Cyrus, it only went to number two in the US Billboard Hot 100. Ironically, it was kept off the top by Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines', itself the subject of a multi-million dollar copyright infringement case.

The 'Blurred Lines' legal battle was decided by a jury - something one of the lawyers representing Thicke later argued should never have happened. May's lawyers too are requesting that the case against Cyrus also be heard by a jury. Although it remains to be seen if it ever gets that far. It is more likely - especially as the lawsuit already references it as an option - that the case will be settled out of court.

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Yungen signs to Sony/ATV
Sony/ATV has signed UK rapper Yungen to a worldwide publishing deal, covering his back catalogue as well as future releases.

"Yungen represents a new generation of artists and songwriters", reckons Sony/ATV UK Head Of A&R David Ventura. "He is a true talent who we had to work with and bring into the Sony/ATV family. Excuse my French but his lyrics are de la balle! Everything he has achieved is impressive and it is only the beginning of his journey. We are all very excited to have him on the Sony/ATV roster".

In case you were wondering "de la balle" is French slang for 'really awesome'. What Ventura's done there is say "excuse my French" and then said something in French, rather than saying it to excuse some swearing that's in English, like you're supposed to.

Clever? No, what he should have said is "Excuse my French, but his lyrics are fucking tremendous". What's the point of asking people to excuse your French if you're going to go around actually speaking French? If I was Yungen, I'd call this whole deal off right now. Let's see if Senior A&R Manager Alex Sparks can turn things around.

"Having been a fan of Yungen for a long time it is a real pleasure to have him join our family as his talent is indisputable", says Sparks. "He has had a great start to his career and his continued drive to be the best is inspiring. We are incredibly excited to join forces with his team and help him achieve his ambitions".

Well, I wouldn't say it's faultless - after all, Sony/ATV is a company not a family - but at least there's no French. Or excuses for French without a subsequent English swearword. Like Fucktrumpet. Or cockweasel. The French famously have no word for cockweasel, so that would have been ideal had he gone down the old "excuse my French" route. But he didn't. He always plays it safe does Sparksy.

Yungen, meanwhile, comments: "Je suis excité de travailler avec une équipe aussi réputée qui est tout aussi excitée à propos de moi et de ma musique. Tout ce que je veux, c'est créer de la bonne musique, pour qu'elle atteigne tous les coins du globe et qu'elle réussisse avec ceux qui croient en moi. Sony/ATV se sentait comme à la maison dès la première fois que je marchais dans le bâtiment".

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Concord Music launches joint venture with Disciples' Gavin Koolman
Concord Music has launched a new joint venture publishing company with Gavin Koolman off of production trio Disciples. As head of Simplicity Is Key Publishing, Koolman will sign songwriters and producers across various genres. While also possibly thinking of a better name for his new business, which, ironically, could be simpler.

"We are THRILLED to partner with Gavin on his new publishing venture", says Concord's Kim Frankiewicz. "Through Disciples he has been a tour de force, and with his energy and vision applied on new producers and songwriters, we are looking forward to collaborating with Gavin on all levels".

Koolman adds: "I am very excited to be starting this venture with Concord. Kim, Leo [Chantzaras, Senior International A&R] and the team are amazing and I believe our synergy will allow us to achieve great things together".

Concord Music will provide administrative and creative services to the new company on a worldwide basis.

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UK Music calls for quicker action on business rates
Cross-sector music industry trade group UK Music has urged the government to bring forward even further the next review of business rates.

In his Spring Statement, delivered yesterday, the government's top money minister, Chancellor Of The Exchequer Philip Hammond, announced that he was bringing forward by one year the next planned review of the rates paid by businesses to local authorities wherever they have premises. So that means it will happen in 2021.

Subsequent revaluations will then take place every three years, rather than five years, as in the past, so business rates can better reflect changes in the wider economy.

However, UK Music says that small businesses in the music sector can't wait until 2021 for an "urgently-needed review" of the rates they pay. The trade body last year spoke out about the impact of recent changes to business rates on grassroots music venues and independent recording studios, urging Hammond to act.

At the time UK Music boss Michael Dugher noted that: "One small venue, the Lexington in North London, has seen a staggering rise of 118% in its rateable value this year. Meanwhile, Arsenal's 60,000 capacity Emirates Stadium nearby enjoyed a 7% cut in its rateable value".

Responding to Hammond's new commitment to bring forward the next business rates revaluation by one year, Dugher said yesterday: "Many music venues and studios are still reeling from the huge hikes in business rates following last year's revaluation. Venues and studios need help now and can't afford to wait until 2021".

Noting again the comparative impact the last revaluation had on the Lexington versus the Emirates Stadium, Dugher continued: "We need an urgent review of the disproportionate rates many venues and studios face if we are to maintain our vibrant and diverse music scene. The Chancellor needs to press the fast forward button and make that happen".

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Tech innovators look into the future ahead of AI Conference at The Great Escape
Five of the companies that will showcase their technologies as part of the CMU Insights AI Conference at The Great Escape in May can be found on the TGE website this week discussing what technological advances they think will further enhance their respective services in the coming years.

Already sharing their thoughts on what the near future holds are live entertainment guide Ents24, which has been busy building tools that utilise years of user data to recommend shows and events, and POP, which is currently moving the fan conversation over to Facebook Messenger.

Looking to the future, Ents24 says: "The field of deep learning is becoming progressively more accessible via cloud-based tools and APIs, and our initial investigations have shown much potential in leveraging this technology for fine-tuning event recommendations".

They add: "Also, we are an early adopter of graph databases, and as this technology matures we expect to see further innovations in storage and retrieval mechanisms that will enhance the responsiveness of our systems".

Meanwhile POP considers how the increasingly key messaging apps will evolve in the next few years, stating that: "I think we will see an increased use of Facebook Messenger - and potentially other messaging apps - as a transactional platform in the coming years".

They go on: "A few years ago when people were talking about how mobile devices would come to dominate e-commerce I remember feeling very doubtful that I would ever be making significant numbers of e-commerce transactions from my mobile - but now I book flights, buy furniture, all sorts of things - all from a smartphone".

They conclude: "I think the same revolution will apply for messaging - you might not see it now, but in a few years I am sure that engaging and transacting inside Messenger and other messaging platforms will be second nature to us all".

You can check out the mini interview with Ents 24 and POP - and later this week Jukedeck, Rotor and WARM - here. Full details about the CMU Insights AI Conference, which takes place on Thursday 17 May, are available here. And you can get your delegate or convention-only passes for this year's Great Escape, which provide access to the three CMU Insights conferences - focused on music education, AI and China - here.

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Dua Lipa's teeth pull her out of Bruno Mars tour
Dua Lipa has pulled out of a number of shows supporting Bruno Mars in Australia because her mouth's gone wrong. Specifically, she's had to have her wisdom teeth yanked out. I'm told that this is no fun.

"I'm so sorry to have to cancel some of my support shows with Bruno Mars", she writes on Instagram. "I've been performing with an awful pain due to my wisdom teeth and, as advised by my dentist and oral surgeon, I have had to have them imminently removed. I have been enjoying this tour so much and I'm so upset that life has gotten in the way but hopefully I'll have a speedy recovery and make it back as soon as possible".

Earlier this week, she posted an x-ray of her mouth showing that she had an extra tooth causing her gyp.

Live Nation tweeted last night to confirm that DJ Leggo My Fueggo was moving up into Dua Lipa's support slot before Mars's performance in Brisbane. It's not currently clear how long she will be out of action for. There are more shows in Brisbane tonight and tomorrow, before the tour moves to Sydney for its closing four night run at the Qudos Bank Arena.

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New documentary to examine '27 Club'
Former Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell is to release his latest documentary later this month. Titled '27 Gone To Soon', the film will look at the so called '27 club', and the various iconic musicians who have died at that age.

When Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix all died at the age of 27 in fairly quick succession between 1967 and 1971 people commented on the coincidence, says the film. But it wasn't until Kurt Cobain took his own life in 1994 that the idea that there was some sort of 'club' took hold. When a 27 year old Amy Winehouse died in 2011, interest in the idea rose again.

The film pulls together archive footage and new interviews, including with music critics Pete Paphides and Paul Gambaccini, record industry veteran Korda Marshall, and musicians like Gary Numan and the currently 27 years old Olly Alexander from Years & Years.

The film will be screened at the Regent Street Cinema on 26 Mar, as well as being released on DVD and digital services the same day.

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Jarvis Cocker announces UK tour
Jarvis Cocker has announced a short solo UK tour, starting at the end of this month. Or it might not be a solo tour. He might be fronting a band called Jarv. Or JARV.

"Following a successful one-off show at Sigur Ros's festival in Iceland at the end of last year the band wanted to present what they are doing to a domestic audience", says a statement. "Most of the songs are new but some will be familiar".

The members of Jarv (or JARV) and/or Cocker's backing band are an impressive collection of musicians. There's solo artist Serafina Steer, Three Trapped Tigers' Adam Betts, the James Taylor Quartet's Andrew McKinney and the Elysian Quartet's Emma Smith. Quite the band indeed.

The dates are:

26 Mar: Brighton, Patterns
27 Mar: London, Moth Club
28 Mar: Ramsgate Music Hall
3 Apr: Manchester, Deaf Institute
4 Apr: Liverpool, Williamson's Tunnels
6 Apr: Castleton, Peak Cavern
7 Apr: Castleton, Peak Cavern

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Pearl Jam, George Ezra, Brian Eno, more

Other notable announcements and developments today...

• Pearl Jam have gone and released a new song, 'Can't Deny Me'. They'll release their first album since 2013 this year. And they're playing two nights at the O2 Arena in London in June.

• George Ezra, would you believe, has released a new single, called 'Saviour'. It features First Aid Kit. The release completes a triptych of lyric videos, which is apparently a thing that can happen now.

• Brian Eno will release a new boxset, 'Music For Installations', featuring various pieces of music made for art installations. The six CD or nine LP release is set for release in the US on 4 May.

• Flying Lotus has uploaded seven new tracks to his SoundCloud profile. Six are from animated short film 'Blade Runner Black Out 2022'. The seventh, a collaboration with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, is an unused track made for the soundtrack of upcoming movie 'Perfect'.

• Junglepussy has released new single 'Showers'.

• Ssion has released the video for his Ariel Pink collaboration, 'At Least The Sky Is Blue'. His new album, 'O', is out on 11 May.

• Amen Dunes has shared new single 'Believe'. His fifth album, 'Freedom', is out on 30 Mar.

• Bromide have announced that they will release new album 'I Woke Up' on 25 May. From it, this is 'Two Song Slot'.

• Helena Deland has released the video for recent single, 'There Are A Thousand'.

• Frightened Rabbit have announced that they will host their own festival, The First Incident, in Glasgow on 1 Jun. As well as themselves, Hookworms, Dama Scout and Be Charlotte are on the bill. More info.

• Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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Lionel Richie terrorised by Michael Jackson's animals while writing We Are The World
Earlier this week we heard of Michael Jackson speaking about his songwriting with Prince from beyond the grave. Now Lionel Richie has spoken about how hard it was to actually collaborate with the late star when he was still alive. Not least because of Richie's own involuntary screaming.

"Michael loved to collect animals", Richie told US TV show 'The Talk', recalling the time in the mid-80s when they came together to write 'We Are The World'. "So right in the middle of writing this song we're eating downstairs and there's this dog barking hysterically, and then we heard, 'shut up, shut up!' I'm thinking to myself, 'What's going on, Michael?'"

Sensing Richie's confusion, Jackson quickly allayed his fears. "He said, 'That's the bird. That's the bird having an argument with the dog'. So we went back into the kitchen and there's the bird in the cage and the dog is barking at the bird and the bird is going, 'shut up, shut up'".

So, that was weird, but all fine and so far there's been no screaming. Things changed when they went back to the studio and Richie was "laying on the floor [with Jackson] working on the lyrics".

"All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye the albums that were against the wall were falling down", he recalls. "I'm thinking to myself, 'Well what could this be?' I look over and there is an albino python and [Jackson] goes, 'There he is Lionel, we found him. We knew he was in the room somewhere Lionel, but we weren't sure. He wants to come out and play with you'".

Cool. Who doesn't like to play with a python? Especially one that's been lost for an unknown period of time and is now probably hungry. Not Lionel Richie, that's who. "I was screaming like the last woman in a horror movie. I was screaming so loud. He kept saying, 'Why are you screaming?' I said, 'Baby, that's a snake. He might be your pet, but I'm from Alabama. That's a snake!'"

So now I might think of Lionel Richie screaming at a snake whenever I hear 'We Are The World'. For a bit anyway. Before I default back to picturing Bob Dylan in a less animated fashion.

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